Comparable Worth Bill Comes Alive In House

May 2, 1985|By Maya Bell, Sentinel Tallahassee Bureau

TALLAHASSEE — A bill that would create a study commission to determine whether state jobs held by women pay less than jobs requiring similar skills held by men passed a House committee Wednesday, surprising many people who had counted it dead.

The House Committee on Retirement, Personnel and Collective Bargaining passed the ''comparable worth bill'' on a 6 to 5 vote that brought charges of intimidation by opponents.

''There's a lot of intimidation going on in the House. The proponents have built up the issue as a discrimination issue, a women's issue, so everybody's afraid to vote against it. Nobody wants to rightly or wrongly be accused of discrimination,'' said Jon Shebel, lobbyist for Associated Industries of Florida.

The bill (HB 63) calls for a pay equity study commission to analyze government salaries in Florida using the theory of comparable worth, which holds that men and women should be paid the same if they do work requiring comparable skills. Proponents argue, for example, that secretaries should be paid as well as maintenance workers.

The favorable vote in the committee -- where the bill appeared doomed earlier this month -- was made possible by the absence of one member and the presence of Speaker Pro Tem Elaine Gordon.

Although not on the committee, Gordon, D-North Miami, exercised her power as speaker pro tem to cast the sixth and winning vote. Rep. Dorothy Sample, R- St. Petersburg, a committee member and opponent of the bill was pursuing a bill in another another committee and missed the vote.

The bill's primary sponsor, Rep. Helen Gordon Davis, D-Tampa, said the study has the support of 61 of the 120 members in the House but whether it will ever get to the floor will depend on positive action in the Senate, which appears unlikely.

House Speaker James Harold Thompson, D-Gretna, wants to see what the Senate does with its comparable worth measure -- which essentially has been gutted by an amendment -- before the House considers Davis' bill.

''The House has passed this twice and there's no point in going through the process if we don't feel the Senate will follow through,'' Davis said.

Early last month, the Senate Personnel, Retirement and Collective Bargaining Committee amended its bill (SB 180) to change the focus of the study. The study would evaluate whether employees get equal pay for equal work, which already is required by law, and address comparable worth only by considering the advantages and the disadvantages of the theory.

On Wednesday, Senate President Harry Johnston, D-West Palm Beach, said he had no strong feelings about the bill.

Shebel has staunchly opposed both bills on the grounds that comparable worth is an immeasurable concept that nobody can understand, much less study. He said people aren't getting equal pay for equal work but, because that concept is already law, he argues that remedies are already available.